Tuesday, December 18, 2012

This much is clear: the teachers and staff at the Sandy HookElementary School reacted with astonishing courage to theunthinkable, the terrifying intrusion of a man intent onmurdering them and their students. With no thought oftheir own safety, they defended their children..

Vicki Soto.

Everyone of them is a hero, those who died and those whosurvived. Six of them died protecting the children.

We don't know the names of the survivors, but we know who madethe ultimate sacrifice. For their courage and selflessness,they are heroes of American education.

The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, and the schoolpsychologist, Mary Sherlach, 52, ran towards the intruder totry to stop him. They both were killed.

The killer went in search of defenseless babies and teachers.The teachers heard the gunfire, tried to hide their children,hid them in closets and cabinets.

Vicki Soto, 27, put herself between the killer and herchildren. He killed her. Somehow some of them escaped. Six ranto a nearby house. They told the surprised homeowner,, "Wecan't go back to our school. Our teacher is dead. We don'thave a teacher."

Anne Marie Murphy, 52, was a special education teacher who wasdevoted to the children she taught. When her body was found,little Dylan Hockley was in her arms.

Rachel D'Avino was a new teacher, who was getting herdoctorate in special education. She was a behavioral analyst.Her boyfriend planned to ask her to marry him during theChristmas holiday. Like the other teachers, she died shieldingstudents.

Lauren Rousseau, 30, had joined the faculty in November. Shewas thrilled. All her life, her mother later said, she wantedto be a teacher.

Every one of the teachers was a career educator. Every one wasdoing exactly what she wanted to do. they've worked in aschool that was not obsessed with testing but with the needsof children. This we know: the staff at Sandy Hook loved theirstudents. They put their students first, even before their ownlives.

Oh, and one other thing, all these dedicated teachers belongedto a union. The senior teachers had tenure, despite the factthat "reformers" (led by ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedgefund managers) did their best last spring to diminish theirtenure and to tie their evaluations to test scores. GovernorMalloy said, memorably, to his shame, that teachers get tenurejust for showing up. No one at Sandy Hook was just "showingup."

Governor Dannell Malloy has led the effort in his state toexpand charter schools and high-stakes testing. He appointed astate commissioner of education who co-founded a charterchain. He said, memorably, that he didn't care how much testprep there was so long as scores go up. Sandy Hook is not thatkind of school.

Let us hope Governor Malloy learned something these past fewdays about the role of public schools in their communities.

Newtown does not need a charter school. What it needs now ishealing. Not competition, not division, but a community comingtogether to help one another. Together. Not competing.-------We can all be proud of these teachers.

[About Diane Ravitch... http://dianeravitch.net/about/"My website is dianeravitch.com. I am a historian of educationand Research Professor of Education at New York University. Iwas born in Houston, Texas, attended the Houston publicschools from kindergarten through high school, and graduatedfrom Wellesley College in 1960. I received my Ph.D. in thehistory of American education in 1975. I am the mother of twosons. They went to private schools in New York City. I havethree grandsons: two went to religious schools and the thirdgoes to public school in New York City. I live in Brooklyn,New York.